This invention pertains to the art of robotic grippers.
When a part is to be gripped and picked up by a robot gripper of conventional design, the position and location of the part should be related to the position of the gripper fingers. If the center of the part is not coincident with the center point to which the gripper fingers are closing, the part may be pushed to that closing center of the gripper fingers when the fingers are actuated. If the part is located by a fixture locating pin, and if both centers are not the same, jamming can occur. This problem exists for most castings and for parts with gripping surfaces which are dimensionally uncertain. This is why parts with an uncertain gripping profile, such as rough castings, molded parts or soft and deformable parts, are difficult to assemble automatically.
The aim of this invention is to provide a force controlled gripper in which the gripper fingers can accommodate to uncertain gripping surfaces of the part and off-center locations of the part and in which the accommodation of the gripping force enables the gripper to handle delicate parts.